Teenager convicted for distributing Blaster Worm

19-year-old Minnesota teen Jeffrey Lee Parson has been convicted of distributing the blaster worm, and has been sentenced to 18 months in prison. His time will be served in a minimum security prison, and he will have to participate in 10 months of community service, pay restitution and be placed under supervision for three years following the sentence.

The variant of the worm infected approximately 48,000 computers that had not use a security patch. The author of the original version of the MSBlast worm has yet to be caught.

Parson pleaded guilty in the court to damaging federal government computers with MSBlast.B. At the time of his plea, he faced a possible prison sentence of 10 years and a fine of 250,000 U.S. dollars.

U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman decided to be lenient on the teenager, and did not impose the maximum sentence, claiming that Parson had suffered a neglectful upbringing.